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Galatians 6:1-5 Page 993 in Pew Bibles

1. Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual should restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so you won’t be tempted also.

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2. Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

3. For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he is deceiving himself.

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4. But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else.

5. For each person will have to carry his own load.

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The Responsibilityof Restoration

• Vs. 1 “Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual should restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so you won’t be tempted also.”

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Somebody Slips Up

• Vs. 1 “Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing”

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Somebody Slips Up

• Vs. 1 “Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing”

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Caught: Suddenly slipping and trapped in a sin

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Spiritual EMA Personnel

• Vs. 1 “You who are spiritual should restore such a person”

Lst >

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False Concepts of Spirituality• Those with a certain worship/music style• Those who emphasize a secondary doctrinal issue (a

specific view about spiritual gifts, predestination, the second coming, etc.)

• Those who follow certain Christian teachers or preachers

• Denominational involvement – or more often, those who are not involved >

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Spiritual EMA Personnel

• Vs. 1 “You who are spiritual”• Those who are in step with the Spirit• 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow

the Spirit.”• Follow/Walk by: To march in step, to keep in

formation• Those who listen to and rely on the Spirit >

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Restoring

• Vs. 1 “You who are spiritual should restore him”

• Restore: Used of mending fishing nets and setting broken bones.

• Used of completely supplying an army -> to make complete

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Restoring

• Some want to restore the sinner and some want to destroy the sinner

• For them it’s a game of “gothcha”…

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Warren WeirsbeBible Exposition Commentary

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Nothing reveals the wickedness of legalism better than the way the legalists treat those who have sinned. Call to mind the Pharisees who dragged a woman taken in adultery before Jesus (John 8)...

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Or that Jewish mob that almost killed Paul because they thought he had defiled the temple by bringing in Gentiles (Acts 21:27ff). (Legalists do not need facts and proof; they need only suspicions and rumors. Their self-righteous imaginations will do the rest.) So, in this paragraph, Paul is really contrasting the way the legalist would deal with the erring brother, and the way the spiritual man would deal with him.

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The Approach

• Vs. 1 “Restore him in a spirit of gentleness”• Without superiority – like you are better• Without piling on – when they already feel bad• Without any unnecessary embarrassment• With the goal of getting them back into the

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A Word of Warning

• Vs. 1 “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

• Rescuers have to take steps to protect themselves – if they don’t, and get hurt, they can’t rescue anybody else

• Temptation is powerful stuff: use extreme caution . >

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Spiritual People Take Burdens Off,Legalists Dump Them On

• Vs. 2 “Bear one another’s burdens…”• Pharisees – Matthew 23:4 “They tie up heavy

loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them.”

• You want a law? Vs. 2 “…and so fulfill the law of Christ.” >

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I Misoverestimated Myself

• Vs. 3 “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

• Tallulah Bankhead: “There’s less there than meets the eye.”

• Church is not a self-esteem scheme

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Comparing & Keeping Score

• Vs. 4, Amplified: “But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.” >

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Comparing & Keeping Score

• Making others look bad to make yourself look good: Like sharing “prayer requests” about others’ failures

• Competitive: Using terms like: friendliest, fastest growing, etc. about a church

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New American Commentary

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Don’t compare yourself with Pastor Jim or Deacon Smith or Sister Jones. God wants you to bring your own life before the open pages of his Holy Word. Are you more loving and patient than you were this time last year? How do you gauge your gentleness and self-control, your kindness and faithfulness?

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…No one who honestly brings his or her life before God in this kind of way is going to have any interest in “comparing himself to somebody else.” This kind of honest scrutiny will issue in confession, not competition, in humility, not in vainglory.

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Personal Responsibility

• Vs. 5 “For each will have to bear his own load.”• Different word for burden than in vs. 2 – – This is the word for a soldiers pack…– “For each man must carry his own pack”

(Barclay's Daily Study Bible)

• We can’t consume all the support of the church and take it from those who really it need it . >

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The Church: A Community

• A restoring, burden-bearing community that takes care of its wounded and gets them back on their feet again.

• In such a community it should be each person’s goal to stay off the casualty list and to be a first responder, instead.

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